Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization before one-time items rose 5.6 percent from a year
earlier to 211 million francs ($226 million), the company said
today. That compared with the 207 million-franc estimate of 10
analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

“We are confident that we will achieve our full-year
targets,” Chief Executive Officer Hariolf Kottmann said in a
statement. Assuming stable mature markets and rising
uncertainties in emerging economies, Clariant will achieve
further growth and improved profitability in 2013, he said.

Kottmann has ruled out transformational acquisitions as he
leads Clariant away from commodity chemicals to more profitable
agrochemical ingredients and catalysts for the oil and gas
industry, leveraging on research and technology acquired from
the $2.5 billion purchase of Sued Chemie AG in 2011.

Care chemicals was the fastest growing of Clariant’s four
reported business units as sales increased 8 percent in local
currencies.

Shares Gain

Clariant shares rose as much as 1.7 percent and traded 1
percent higher at 14.25 francs as of 10:30 a.m. in Zurich. The
stock has risen 18 percent this year, giving the company a
market value of 4.7 billion Swiss francs.

“Clariant has again produced solid results in a difficult
demand environment for the chemical industry,” Jaideep Pandya,
an analyst at Berenberg Bank in London, wrote in a note to
investors, adding that expectations for full-year profitability
remain unchanged. Pandya has a buy rating on the stock.

The sale of paper, textile and emulsions units to New York
buy-out firm SK Capital Partners is being made more difficult
because of the responses from administrations in different
countries, Chief Executive Officer Hariolf Kottmann said in a
phone interview.

“The process is a difficult one,” said Kottmann, adding
that his “firm assumption” remains that the transaction will
be completed by the end of September.

Kottmann wants to exit units making leather chemicals,
detergents and intermediates by the end of this year bouyed by
last December’s agreement to sell three units to SK Capital for
about 502 million francs. Clariant is waiting for final offers
for those units, Kottmann said.

Clariant and French buyout firm Wendel SA are considering
options for their leather-chemical businesses that include a
merger or an outright purchase by Wendel, four people with
knowledge of the situation said earlier this month.